Midd welcomes diversity dean

Author: Scott Greene

Shirley Ramirez, executive vice president of the New York City-based Posse Foundation, will join the President's staff in January as the Dean of Institutional Diversity, Middlebury College announced on Thursday.

"We are delighted and most fortunate to welcome Shirley Ramirez to the college to serve in this most important position," President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz said in a statement. "Her experience will help us further our efforts to foster the educational benefits that derive from living and learning within a diverse community."

"I am confident that this position and my role at Middlebury will help us create a true model of what a liberal arts education should be about," Ramirez said when reached by telephone in New York.

As a member of the President's staff, Ramirez will work to include vital diversity issues in all institutional initiatives and strategic planning, as well as lead the effort to shape a Middlebury community that consists of a multicultural faculty, staff and student body.

Ramirez currently manages the administrative and overall national operations of The Posse Foundation, which works to recruit and choose student leaders from public high schools and develop them into multicultural teams called "Posses" that then attend elite colleges and universities across the country. Middlebury has participated in the Posse program since 1999.

"In my role as executive vice president of The Posse Foundation I had the luxury of knowing personally how much of a leader Middlebury has been in higher education," she said. "I think that this position and Middlebury reaching out to me speaks to a level of commitment to diversity that is really strong."

Ramirez attended Vanderbilt University in 1989 as a member of The Posse Foundation's original Posse, and is the first Posse Scholar to earn a doctorate. At Vanderbilt, she earned an undergraduate degree in human and organizational development and psychology. The daughter of Dominican immigrants, she is also the first person in her family to go to college. Ramirez has taught at New York University, Georgetown University and George Mason University, and also worked as a clinical psychologist in which she assisted multicultural populations.

"We will miss Shirley but are confident that the strengths she brought to the Posse will serve Middlebury well and deepen our partnership at the same time," said Deborah Bial, president and founder of The Posse Foundation. "Middlebury has been an outstanding partner and we are impressed with the college's ongoing and very serious committment to diversity."